Now we will start to look at the prophecies themselves. "Comfort, comfort my people". This sets the theme of the rest of the book. The first part of Isaiah contained much judgement upon Israel, with hints of salvation, both for Israel and further afield, woven into this. The overwhelming theme of the second part of Isaiah is salvation. In the same way as salvation was woven into the first part, so there are elements of judgement as well.
Indeed this is the way the gospel works. The need for repentance is an essential part of the good news. Without a recognition of our need to repent, or our sin, the good news makes no sense. Jesus preached "repent for the Kingdom of God is near", Peter preached "repent and believe". When God tells us about our sin it is so that we can turn to Him and be healed.
Isaiah proclaims that her penalty has been paid. This is a reference to the Babylonian exile, declaring that her exile is coming to an end. Now we know that it is because of Jesus that we are saved, it is because He has paid the price that we are forgiven. So how does this work? Well, we are all paying the price of our sin. Our lives, to varying degrees, are a lot worse than they would be if we had never sinned. Without Christ we experience more and more of the consequences of sin (our own, and other peoples'). Without Christ we are on a downward spiral. These times have finished, they have come to an end. Now, we are in the restoration phase.
We still experience the effects of sin (indeed we still sin, though hopefully less than we used to), but we need to remind ourselves that we are now on an upward spiral. We are now starting to receive the benefits of salvation.
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